Targeting your new customers

Finding the right people for you, those most likely to buy what you are selling is key to generating the best return. No matter how well-crafted your campaign, how enticing or generous your offer, if you target the wrong people your marketing will fail to generate the best return. If your targeting is way off the mark you might even be looking at a complete waste of time and resources.

Do you have a clear idea of who your best prospects are? What has worked in the past with some success?

Equally useful, who hasn’t responded to what you had to say and offer? Being able to identify both is important to your targeting.

Questions, questions , questions - your choices …..

THE WHO

Your target companies, your target contacts; selecting decision making authority or Job title. Don’t discount people without a specific job title. In many organisations, especially smaller ones, its often the case that people may have more than one hat, and as they say, if the hat fits then wear it. Or in this case target them with your message or offer. It can also betrue that marketing to decision makers who don’t wear a functional job title might prove to be very productive because they have received fewer marketing or sales messages and approaches. For more information about which contacts to use, see our article 'B2B data for UK campaigns: Decision Making Contacts or Job Titles'

THE WHERE

Where are your ideal prospects? We have covered what they do but what types of companies do they work for, in which sectors, what do those organisations do? How large or small should they be; and what’s the best way of making sure they aren’t too big or small; number of employees within the company on a site basis or nationally, or by turnover?

Geography – does it matter to your sales and distribution if they are hundreds of miles away? If the answer is yes, its quick and straightforward to search from a single point, regionally, by county, town or postcode or even by distance from your location.

THE DON’T DO

We’ve quickly covered some of the basics but you also need to consider who you would not wish to market to. You would not want to market to your competitors! You would wish to re-introduce yourself to existing customers, but probably would want to use a slightly different approach, so you would need them identified separately. You should also try to exclude companies which could not be interested in your products. Sending irrelevant marketing to people is definitely a waste of your marketing budget, and may even create a poor impression of your brand or even prompt critical PR. Excluding the ’wrong’ contacts needs a moment’s thought but is simple to do.

THE HOW

We have covered who and where but what about how? How are you intending to communicate, mail, phone or email or perhaps a combination of all three. It’s important to consider the channel.

The right people, in the right jobs in the right organisations, contacted at the right time in the right way.

Double check your planned marketing and your data to make sure it is compliant with the law before you press the “GO” button. There are a range of legal requirements including exclude lists and suppression files, data protection and distance selling legislation. Of course you might have rules that apply specifically to your company, especially if you are in a regulated sector like financial services.


Finally, once you have chosen the who, where and how it’s still important to draft what you say, and ensure it is relevant to the contacts you hope will buy from you. As you write your copy it’s a good idea to access your mental profile of people who are within your marketing list, doing so should help you fine tune your message and gain the greatest success.